proscribe
verbUK /ˈpɹəʊskɹaɪb/ · US /ˈpɹoʊˌskɹaɪb/
Etymology From Middle English proscriben, from Latin prōscrībō (“to proclaim, forbid, banish”).
1
To forbid or prohibit.
- The law proscribes driving a car while intoxicated.
2
To denounce.
- The word ‘ain't’ is proscribed by many authorities.
- If Joseph Willet, the denounced and proscribed of 'prentices, had happened to be at home when his father's courtly guest presented himself before the Maypole door— [...] he would have contrived, by hook or crook, to dive to the very bottom of Mr. Chester's mystery, and to come at his purpose with as much certainty as though he had been his confidential adviser.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 13.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 1:
3
To banish or exclude.
- Many Roman citizens were proscribed for taking part in rebellions.
- Antonyms
- prescribe
- Derived terms
- deproscribe, proscribable, proscriber
- Related terms
- proscription, proscriptive, proscriptivist